'The Stars Are All Strange Here': Cultural Memory and Forgetfulness in Roderick MacKay's 'The Furnace'

Inspired by the long-overlooked history of the cameleers who journeyed from Afghanistan and beyond to haul supplies across the late-nineteenth-century Australian outback, Roderick MacKay's debut feature paints a complicated portrait of the country's colonial past. In its tale of ill-gotten gold, racial animus and displacement, the film is a thematically unique – if, in other respects, somewhat conventional – instalment in a new wave of Australian westerns, writes Jessica Kiang.

Additional keywords:
genre, 'meat pie' western, Pashto, The Story of the Kelly Gang, Indigenous cultures, Kalkadoon Wars, racism